Room with a view may cease to exist as developer moves in

Miki Perkins
May 02, 2012

Lynette Gelsomino will lose all her sunlight if the development goes ahead.
Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

ONE of the remaining pleasures in Lynette Gelsomino's life is sitting in the warm sunlight that pours in through the only window of her small, second-floor Richmond apartment. It faces west, with views over Yarra Park, MCG and the city skyline.

Ms Gelsomino has scleroderma, a progressive connective tissue disease that affects many parts of the body, including the circulation, and one of consequences is that sufferers feel bone-chillingly cold.

But soon Ms Gelsomino may lose her view and much of her sunlight, with a planning application to build a 13-storey residential apartment tower on the site next door, in Stewart Street.

A local resident group has formed - called St Four - which has started a campaign against the proposal, calling it a ''massive overdevelopment'' of a formerly industrial area of Richmond where most buildings are between two and five storeys high.

The developer, Mantello Property Investment, initially applied to Yarra Council for a planning permit for a 13-storey building (one storey is internal so the building looks like 12 storeys from the street) with 90 apartments, car parking via car stackers, and a ground-floor office and cafe.

The council's planners refused the application, saying the height and bulk were inappropriate for the neighbourhood and it didn't address the impacts on neighbours.

But the matter is now bound for the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

In the meantime, the developer has made some changes, including reducing the number of apartments from 90 to 80 and increasing the setback from the streets, but no alterations to the height.

Ms Gelsomino said she was aware of the doctrine of caveat emptor, or buyer beware, and was reassured by the council before buying her apartment in 2009 that there were strict height guidelines of five or six storeys.

Many people with scleroderma move to warmer areas of Australia because of the health benefits, but she said she was too unwell to move and Melbourne was her home.

''What people forget is that not everybody is able to simply relocate if they're next door to a development. There are people who are sick, or disabled, or unable to afford it,'' she said.

Mantello Property Investment declined to comment, but the proposal's architect, Craig Yelland, from Plus Architecture, said he could not think of a better location to put a medium-rise apartment building than next to a major railway station.

''It's the perfect solution to what the city needs,'' Mr Yelland said.

He said his firm had done shadowing analysis that showed there were no adverse amenity impacts on neighbouring residents, but agreed some residents would lose their view.